


Day 22. Weak

by Munnin



Series: Fictober [22]
Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-04 09:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: Savric is troubled by the reports he hears about the droids he programmed and goes to Count Dooku to help repair them.





	Day 22. Weak

**Author's Note:**

> If you're coming to this story from the middle, I urge you to read the [whole series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1145777) from the beginning. I know that look like individual stories but there is an overarching narrative holding them all together. And we're deep enough now I'm not convinced they'd make sense on their own any more.

The meeting had not gone well. Savric Ishsha thought he’d impressed Count Dooku, thought the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems would have been grateful for his contribution. 

And he was right. But for all the wrong reasons.

It had been just under a year since he’d provided the Confederacy with programming for their new tactical battle droids, and from most accounts, they’d been extremely effective. 

Most accounts. Not all. Some accounts of their performance in the field were… troubling. Reports of ruthless actions, endangering sentient lives. That was the very opposite of what Sav had programmed them for.

He had written the programming himself. There were other people, other groups who could have done it. But Sav was the Induparan Crown Worlds’ representative to the Confederacy and he was determined to do it himself. To provide the best his system could offer.

Which was why those handful of negative reports troubled him.

And, what troubled him more was how positively they had been presented. As if his droid threatening, or even worse, killing sentients was something he should be proud of. 

It had come up at the Confederacy leadership dinner. When one of his fellow senators had joked about one of his tactical droids using prisoners as living shields. Sav was so appalled he had to excuse himself to throw up in the fresher. He’d had to send an aid to make his apologies. He was too shaken to even return to the room to collect his cape. 

Had he programmed death machines? 

Maybe it was just a glitch. Folding experiential algorithms were always risky. With exposure to extreme situation, it could have an adverse effect on the logic paths. He’d been very careful to balance the program’s tactical logic with strict ethical boundaries.

Had one of his droids been damaged in a way that tipped that balance?

Which was why he’d requested an audience with Count Dooku. Armed with a set of patches and code updates, he was prepared to offer whatever support he could to repair the glitching droids.

Sav had thought Count Dooku would be pleased.

And Dooku had been pleased. Pleased with the destructive capabilities of the droids. With how effective they’d been at leading droid armies. 

Dooku had been proud. Proud of the droids and their ability to improvise, to study clone trooper deployment. All the better to wipe them out.

And worst of all, Dooku thought Sav should be proud too. The Count had put a hand on Sav’s shoulder as he’d guided the shell-shocked Sav out of the room. 

Sav limped back to his ship in a daze, utterly at a loss.

***

Ventress detached herself from the shadows of Dooku’s office, moving silently to come up behind him. “The boy is a problem.”

“Not for much longer.” Dooku didn’t even look up from his paperwork. 

Ventress draped herself over the back of Dooku’s chair, insolently intimate. “He’s such a pasty thing. It would be terrible if something was to happen to him. That unsteady limp of his.”

Dooku batted her hand away as she toyed with the collar chain of his cape. “See to it he doesn’t reach his dung-heap of a world.”

“As you wish, my master.” 

As silently as she’d come, she was gone.

***

It all happened so quickly Sav didn’t know how to react. One minute his pilot was informing him they were about to enter hyperspace, the next there was laser fire and alarms going off. A ship – small and fast and mostly made up of solar sails was attacking them, twisting and banking around them so fast. Faster than his pilot could react. 

Sav’s ship was small, nothing more than a senatorial run-about. It had no weapons to speak of and what shields it had were failing fast. 

“Go!” The pilot yelled over her shoulder. “Get to the escape pod.”

Sav hesitated. He didn’t know where the escape pod was. He’d never thought to acquaint himself with it. It had never seemed necessary. 

“Aft, port-side.” She yelled, shaking her head at his uselessness as she fought to keep them alive. “Back left!” There was another explosion against the hull, rocking the ship enough to knock Sav off his feet. 

He crawled towards the back of the ship, weak with panic as black smoke started billowing from the cockpit. He looked but saw nothing. It took him a vital moment to realise she meant ship’s left, not his left. He slammed a hand on the access panel and fell in.

The escape pod had barely disconnected when another explosion hit, sending the tiny little capsule tumbling end over end. As he clung to the harness straps, it occurred to him he’d made no effort to rescue the pilot. He hadn’t even waited to check if she was coming before he launched. And there was only one escape pod. 

Worst of all, he never bothered to learn her name.

Savric Ishsha felt like the greatest hypocrite in the galaxy. He claimed to value life, but he’d left a woman to die without a second thought. 

The escape pod shook, taking another blast. Clearly his attacker wasn’t done with him yet. How many shots could it take. Two, three? How long before the metal shell ruptured and he was sucked into oblivion. 

In that moment, Sav was ready to accept his death. And felt like he deserved it. He closed his eyes, looking away from the tiny view-port. He didn’t want to see it coming.

Then it stopped. The firing, the tumbling. It all just stopped and he hung suspended from his straps. The escape pod rotated slowly and Sav saw what had happen. He was being held by a tractor beam, being pulled into a much larger ship. 

A Republic cruiser. 

Sav closed his eyes again and held his head in his hands. 

Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi opened the hatch of the escape pod, grinning charmingly. “Senator Savric Ishsha. It’s your lucky day. You survived a Sith assassination attempt. And you’re just the man we’ve been looking for.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to Josh.


End file.
